Wounded Hearts
by Copper's Mama
Summary: A Damon/Elena fic, taken from the end of episode 7, "Haunted". Not quite so angsty and dramatic as the title sounds. Elena asks Damon to stay, and he takes care of her wounds. please read and review!


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_A Damon/Elena fic._

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_Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Vampire Diaries ... we'd be seeing much more Damon topless if I did. As sexy as that dance was ... we need more. _

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_A/N: Another Damon/Elena (Dana?) fic from episode seven. After watching the rest of the episode, I've decided to write another one, but this time based off the ending, with my own twists. 'Cause really, how sweet was it that Damon offered to alter Jeremy's memories for Elena? While at the same time showing how much more powerful he is than Stefan, hehe. _

_Anywhoo ... here's the story. _

_Hope you guys like it, I know I'll love writing it! _

_As always, please read and review, I live for feedback! _

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Elena Gilbert couldn't tell you what possessed her to ask him to stay, or even to ask Stefan to leave ... she didn't know. She knew that she wanted to thank him for doing what he did for her brother. She'd seen Stefan's look of disbelief when she'd poked her head back out her front door and asked Damon to come in. Stefan had moved to follow, but she'd told him with as few words as possible that she needed some alone time with Damon, and that she'd talk to him in the morning.

She'd missed Damon's smirk of victory as she closed the door.

His face was neutral when she turned around to face him. She glanced upstairs, and with the rest of the house as quiet as it was, she could almost hear the music blaring from her brother's headphones.

"I wanted to thank you," she said to Damon, walking into the living room and sitting down on the couch. Damon followed her carefully, sitting next to her and throwing his arm over the back of the couch. She bit back the urge to ask him to remove it.

"Color me surprised," he replied, looking over at her.

Elena sighed. "Yeah ... I deserved that. Look, I'm sorry about earlier ... I was upset about Vicki, and I took it out on you. I don't know much about you except what Stefan's told me, and honestly, that probably makes me a little biased."

Damon nodded with a flare of his eyes, but was internally pleased with her confession.

"So, I'm sorry about before ... and I wanted to thank you for what you did for my brother. It means a lot," she told him honestly.

Damon spoke, "Yeah, but not to him. As far as he knows, I didn't do a thing."

Elena rolled her eyes. "It means a lot to me."

Damon smiled then ... an actual smile, not just his normal, cocky, half-smile, and Elena felt something odd stirring in her gut.

"Well, in that case, you're very welcome," Damon replied, holding his hand out for her to shake.

She narrowed her eyes at him and after a moment, extended her hand to clasp his. His lips twitched upwards once more, and after a steady shake of their hands, he slowly brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed the back of it, much like he had done the first time they'd met.

A shiver ran through her and she pulled her hand away, standing up from the couch. She swooned a little and felt queasy, and nearly pitched forward but strong hands caught her and steadied her.

She flitted her eyes to Damon who was watching her curiously. "Wow ... sorry. Having a clumsy moment, apparently."

Damon shook his head. "Your wounds need to be taken care of."

Elena felt her heart thump a little faster. "I already did."

"Not well enough, evidently," he pointed out, removing the blanket from her shoulders to reveal her blood-soaked nurse's outfit. There was definitely a larger amount of blood than had been there when she'd last looked. "You're still bleeding."

Elena didn't fail to notice that she was still overly close to him. "It's fine ... I can take care of it later." She tried to pull away from him, but he didn't let her.

"I _can_ control myself, Elena. Clearly you can't properly take care of your wounds yourself, and somehow I doubt you'll want to explain this to your aunt," Damon explained rationally. "I promise I'll be gentle."

Elena sighed, recognizing the fact that if she continued to lose blood, she was going to pass out ... and Damon was right; she did not want to have to tell her aunt about this. She just hoped that he was being honest when he said he could control himself. _If nothing else, he knows that Stefan would never forgive him if he did anything to me ..._

"Fine," she relented.

Damon smiled, asking her to lead him to her bathroom.

Luckily Jeremy's door was closed, and when they got into the bathroom she locked both doors, not wanting her brother to walk in and see them.

"Alright, lose the top," Damon commanded.

Elena's eyes shot up. "Excuse me?"

Damon sighed. "Oh, don't get all prudish. I'm not gonna pounce. I need to see the wounds."

She glared at him but could see the logic behind it, so she carefully unbuttoned the outfit, wincing as she slid out of the sleeves. She had a mental flash of him sniffing the blood-stained material, but he simply tossed it in the shower, turning the water on to rinse the blood out.

Even though she was wearing underwear, Elena felt extremely naked. When Damon turned back to face her, his eyes raked over her bloody, scantily-clad form, and for a moment he looked as though he were going to make some sort of comment, but he turned his attention to the drawer in front of him and pulled out a cloth.

She had covered the wounds as best as she could with gauze and tape, but it clearly hadn't done the job, and while the cloth was soaking Damon pulled the gauze carefully away from the skin on her side and neck.

Having finished that quickly, he knelt on one knee to wipe away the blood with the cold, wet cloth.

Elena hissed at the contact, and Damon murmured something only he could hear.

After a minute most of the blood had been wiped away, and he held the cloth on the wound to staunch further bleeding. Most of the pain had faded, and was now replaced with a warm, oddly fuzzy feeling that Elena didn't was coming from the blood loss. It occurred to her that perhaps he wasn't in the most appropriate position.

"Um ... maybe it would be better if I sat on the counter," she suggested.

Damon glanced up at her, tilting his head like he always did. He seemed to get some sort of answer from her eyes, or maybe her posture, because a second later he had easily hoisted her onto the counter top.

Her breath caught in her throat when she realized that he'd done it with only one hand, with the other one not moving from where it held the cloth against her side. _Okay ... that's pretty strong,_ she thought to herself, wondering if Jeremy had turned up the heat.

Wanting to gain some sense of composure, she reached for the hand towel hanging on the rack beside her and draped it across her lap, biting her lip nervously and looking anywhere but at Damon.

"Where's your first-aid kit?" he asked her, drawing her attention back to him.

Her eyes met his piercing, almost silver eyes, and it was a second before she remembered to speak. "Uh ... down the hall, main closet, top shelf ..."

He nodded, grabbing her hand and placing it under his on the cloth covering her side. "Keep your hand here," he told her.

She nodded, and after he'd unlocked the door, he was gone in a blur. _Show off,_ she thought, but secretly liked that he was comfortable showing his "powers" around her.

Damon was back in a heartbeat, searching for anti-septic. He instructed her to lean back carefully, and then removed the cloth, dropping it in the sink and soaking it again. He applied the liquid that caused her to hiss once more and clench her teeth, and with nothing else to grab onto, she clutched his shoulder, digging her fingers into his hard flesh.

Damon closed his eyes for the shortest of moments, steadying his urges and refocusing on the task at hand. He cleaned and closed the wound as best as he could without stitches, then sealed it with a fresh patch of gauze. With a twitch of his lips, he blew cool air onto the covered wound, feeling her fingers twitch as a shiver ran through her entire body. He wiped the smirk off his face before she even knew it was there, straightening up to take a look at her neck.

Damon pushed her long, brown hair off her neck, pulling it behind her ear and over her other shoulder under the guise of clearing the area. It was necessary, but casually running his fingers through her hair probably wasn't.

The bite was low enough on her neck that she could probably get away with wearing her hair down, or covering it with a turtle neck, and it had stopped bleeding for the most part. Ringing out the cloth from the sink, he cleared away the blood to get a better look at it.

Vicki hadn't had the chance to feed very long from her, and most of the bite marks weren't that deep. There might be a faint scar, and Damon felt a rush go through him at the realization that he was partially responsible for forever marking her with a vampire bite. Though, to be honest, he would have much rather had a more central role in it ... _god, she smells good enough to eat._

Elena's right hand was still clenched on Damon's shoulder, her eyes closed with the expectation of further pain. He quickly cleaned and disinfected her bite-wound, enjoying the feeling of her small hand tightening on him. He finished up quicker than he would have liked, and found himself wishing she had another wound that he could take care of, if nothing else so that she wouldn't hurry into her room and throw clothes onto her delectable body.

Seizing the moment, he once more blew air sensually onto her covered wound, feeling her hand release and tighten once more on his shoulder.

Closing the space between them, he pressed his luck and brought his dipped head up to her ear, whispering huskily, "You're welcome."

Her eyes opened slowly, breathing in a mass amount of air before letting it all out in a big huff. "Thank you, Damon," she replied, glancing at him out of the corner of her eyes.

He pulled his head away from her ear, stopping when he was an inch away from her face. She watched him with blinking, confused eyes, and he figured, _why not? _

"I'm going to kiss you, Elena," he informed her.

She opened her mouth to speak, but he quickly brought his finger to her mouth, holding her lips softly.

"I'm not going to force myself on you. But I want to kiss you. So if you don't want me to, then feel free to slap me again," he told her, and after a moment brought his hand away from her lips to gently brush over her cheek, much like he had done when she was sleeping.

When she didn't stop him right away, he closed the remaining space between them, sealing his lips over hers.

He waited for the slap, and though she didn't immediately respond to the kiss, she wasn't pushing him away either, so he dropped his right hand to the un-marred side of her hip, bringing his other hand up to cup the back of her head, tangling his fingers in her hair and swiping his tongue along her bottom lip.

A spark ran through both of their bodies when she opened up to him, and he dipped his tongue into her responsive mouth, tracing and massaging every inch he could reach. He normally liked it rough, but never let it be said that he wasn't a sensitive lover. He knew what made most women tick, and though Katherine and Elena were clearly two very different women, he was beginning to understand Elena, and knew she'd only continue to act the way she was if he went slow and careful.

As long as she was kissing him, that was fine by him.

Elena wondered if she might be going completely insane, but she couldn't help it ... she couldn't resist him, and she knew that it had nothing to do with his thrall, or compulsion, or whatever the hell it was. He was ... well, he was dangerous, cunning, unpredictable, and sometimes deadly. But he was also magnificent, and sweet to her, and did things to her that she wasn't entirely proud of.

Simply put, he set her entire soul on fire, and she didn't want to miss a second of that feeling.

Her free hand found its way up his sturdy arm, past his shoulder to run through his hair, testing the feeling with her fingers, and dragging her nails over his scalp as he pulled her lower lip into his mouth, sucking softly before releasing it to kiss her fully again.

He tugged her towards him softly, stepping evenly between her legs as he eased them around him. Her kisses were different from Katherine ... less passionate, but more ... well, more loving. More careful and sweet. He found himself loving this difference.

Elena too noted a difference between Damon's kisses from Stefan's. Stefan's were always slow and purposeful ... sometimes playful, but never anything like this.

Damon's kisses were ... well, quite frankly, they were like sex for her mouth.

Minutes that seemed like hours later, Damon pulled back, leaning his forehead against hers as they both panted, lips puffy and eyes gleaming.

Damon stated, "If I don't stop now, I won't be able to."

Elena nodded, feeling the same way herself.

"You should get some sleep," he told her, running his hand up her side to trace lightly over the bandage on her neck, causing her to drop her head onto his shoulder.

He couldn't recall hugging anyone like this in a very long time, but he felt that he could probably get used to it, if she were the one doing the hugging.

"We don't have to talk about this right now, do we?" Elena asked him, and he held back a chuckle for her benefit.

He shook his head, turning into her so that he could breathe in and savor her scent. "No. As long as you promise me that you're not gonna act like this never happened the next time you see me."

She lifted her head, pretending to consider her options before she smiled and hesitantly pressed her lips against his.

He grinned into the kiss, letting her decide when to end it. A little over a minute passed before she pulled away, smiling. "Thanks, again."

He narrowed his eyes at her playfully. "You know, if you keep acting like I'm such a nice guy, I might have to go do something evil just to set the balance back in order."

She smacked his shoulder in mock affront before asking him to help her down off the counter,

Damon obliged, holding her with one hand on her hip while the other rested just above her ribs, his thumb brushing the side of her bra.

She ignored his attempt at fondling her, grabbing her robe from the back of the door and slipping it on.

Elena walked him out of the house, reminding herself that while she wanted him to stay, certain activities wouldn't do any good for her injuries.

Damon opened the front door, turning to face her. "Well, this isn't where I expected the night to end up, but I'm glad it did."

Elena blushed and smiled a little. "The feeling's mutual."

The eldest Salvatore brother grinned down at Elena Gilbert before capturing her lips with his one more time that evening. "Good."

They said goodnight and Elena closed the door after he left, returning to her bedroom on shaky legs that definitely had nothing to do with the blood loss. She brought a snack with her, knowing enough about first aid to know that she should get her blood sugar up.

As she sat on her bed munching on her snack, she thought about the choice she'd just made. She felt guilty when it came to Stefan, but they weren't together anymore, so she didn't feel too bad. She didn't know where the road with Damon would lead, but she'd be lying if she said she didn't want to find out.

She changed into loose pajamas, pulling her diary off of her bedside table and flipping it open.

_"Dear Diary ... you would not believe the night I've had ..."_

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_The end. _

_Hope you guys liked it. _

_A bit longer than my last one, hopefully better as well. _

_Review are appreciated, positive or negative. _

_Until next time ...! _


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